The Shadows of Angels
by Phoenix0192
Summary: Yami has gone missing, and Yugi will stop at nothing to get him back. But does Yugi himself realise how far he is able to go to reach that end? ONESHOT Puzzleshipping if you squint


A/N Hello everyone, this is my first foray into publishing on fanfiction, I am currently having this unofficially beta'd by a friend of mine MrsDalek, but I wanted to get it up before Christmas and this is the last chance I'll get. Please let me know what you think, I am unsure of whether to continue this or to leave it as is. Thank you all for reading

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, however I do own this story...man I am broke.

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They were walking into a trap, everyone knew this, but they couldn't stop. Not when it was one of their own who had been taken.

The flood lines had been rising, and they knew that their only hope now was to find him, to find their Pharaoh before the dam broke and the shadows poured into their world; their creatures with them.

Yugi turned to those behind him, a sense of dread already filling his heart.

"Why don't you guys hang back here a moment, I can move quieter on my own. I'll scout ahead and let you know if it's all clear." He murmured, not waiting to see whether or not they would obey he continued on ahead, following his heart, following the dread.

The corridor wound endlessly onwards, turning this way and that. Yugi's mind drifted from his friends waiting in the darkened tunnel behind them, the dread and darkness all consuming.

Soft sounds reached his ears and he quickened his pace, he heard shouting but for all he noticed it could have been but a whisper to his ears, he was only looking for one sound, only one voice.

Damn him! Damn his dark for leaving, for wanting to protect him, Yami had said it himself, darkness could not fight darkness. Yet he had ventured here anyway, so far from the light, just so his little one wouldn't have to. And now here he was, venturing after him.

There were more cries up ahead, and this time he took notice. It was a chant, a war cry of sorts. He was right they were here.

He had always known that light would dissipate within the darkness, eventually. It was not something that could fight, he had learnt that as a small child, hiding just to save his life. But he couldn't remain hidden forever, he may not be able to fight, but he still wanted to be free. If that meant that he had travel through darkness, so be it.

A light was beginning to form now, just on the edge of his vision, not bright enough to mark the end of his journey but enough. More cries, louder now, clearer. They sounded both familiar and alien at the same time, they were cries of pain, but in a voice he never thought he would hear speak them

Yugi quickened his pace, his brow furrowed in concentration. What was he going to do? He could hardly burst in, guns blazing, swoop in and save the damsel in distress. There were two major problems with that firstly, no guns, and Yami was no damsel.

Nor was he the hero, actually no matter where he went he didn't quite seem to fit the norm, he didn't even fit his age. The odd one out. The saviour who always needed saving, the strength that was so feeble, he didn't fight, he didn't dance. He was neither blunt nor smooth; he held virtually no advantage with the situation he was running into. He truly couldn't be more out of his depth.

But he couldn't stop, rational thought held little sway here where the pulse that was beating within his head held domination over all his thoughts. With each beat a shock of worry, with each step a trembling fear of what he would find.

Despite the assurances he had made to the others, he held little expectation of getting out alive, but he needed to know Yami would.

The light was getting brighter; he could see the ground before him and, more importantly, the first edges of the doorway that was all that stood between him and his other half. His pace quickened into a frenzied run, wanting needing to reach him. The cries were louder now, the pain could be heard clearly and it tore at his heart strings.

Pausing at the door he held his breath, slinking to the side as he thought of what to do. But that choice was taken out of his hands as the door before him swung open.

"Oh little Yugi, please come out to play, we know you are out there. We are the shadows, we know all." A sing-song voice cried. Childlike though it may have been, it was like nails grating down a chalkboard for Yugi, he felt a shiver of fear run down his spine and he subconsciously shrank further into the wall.

"Now, now Yugi, it's rude to keep us waiting. And I'm sure Yami here would like some company, he's lonely we think, been calling to you for hours." The voice called once more, deeper this time, more sinister. Yugi's head snapped up. Something unknown rippled within him, just below the surface. He stepped forward into that mockery of light, and saw before him a scene from nightmares.

It hit him like a sledge hammer, knocking him right out of himself, out of reality. All that remained was numbness, as he viewed what was before him surreally. As if through the eyes of a stranger.

The room was soaked in shadows, lit only by the flickering, uncertain light of a small fire in the corner. But that light was enough for him to see the ground before him, and what lay there, like a lifeless doll.

His darkness, his strength, was upon his side, curled up like a child. His face was dirtied, but somehow still held its ever present, assuring strength. His ebony hair framed his head like the crown of the king that he was. No not a king, an angel, his dark angel. The deep crimson pools that seeped from his side spread out from him, sweeping to the sides like two glorious silken wings. Dyed like his eyes, those now cold, empty eyes.

He reached out to him, wanting that contact, wanting to hold on and never let go. But fearing at the same time, fearing to feel the coldness of his skin, the absence of a heartbeat and have this numbness taken away. His hand hesitated in mid air, mere inches from his face.

"He's dead Yugi," the voice said, to him, the glee in it evident, without any attempt at concealment. Yugi's eyes looked up into those dead eyes; the creature had aged skin like parchment, and thin lips that were drawn into a mocking, twisted smile. All that had remained of the man he once was had dissipated, leaving this empty shell behind. He raised a skeletal hand, sweeping it to show the masses of creatures even more grotesque than he. Hundreds, thousands, they were here, they'd crossed.

After everything that had happened, after all they'd been through, they were too late; they'd failed.

Instinctively he leant forward and gathered his other in his arms clutching to him all that was left of his closest friend. The numbness was fading now, it wouldn't last for long, with his last remnants of conscious thought he stood, lying Yami back down gently. Trembling as his heart began to make itself known.

He raised his eyes to those before him, to those responsible for his Yami being in such a state, and the flood gates crashed open.

He twitched as the lashes of reality whipped into his heart, gripping there. Holding...and pulling, dragging him back down. Yearning and pain swelled within him as he looked upon the crimson ground before him, at the broken doll that was all that remained of the once mighty Pharaoh. He could feel it, the icy raindrops of his bleeding heart falling like diamonds onto the ground where he lay. Mixing with the red, merging, no longer battling but conforming, pulling upon those lashes stretching, drawing them towards him. He could feel the long dormant power that lay beneath the surface begin to awaken, it rose within him and around him. Drawing from the very earth upon which he stood, like a great ocean he could feel its strength, its raw power oozing through his veins, burning like fire, building, shining, blazing. Bonding with him, giving him strength making them one, and rising like a great wave to tower over the masses, imbued with the raw pain of his desecrated heart...

And he let the strings snap.

Then, just like that, all they fell. An army of five thousand of the most horrible, most dangerous creatures in all of reality, and they crumbled to dust at his feet. His. He was no mighty warrior, nor eloquent mage. But before him they had fallen, the peaceful brought the greatest destruction. Darkness consumes, but everyone forgets the terrible power of light. Light reveals, both a blessing and a curse, but on such a scale and with such purity, it blinds; obliterating all that dare stand in its path. Until none remain.

He collapsed, kneeling in the growing pool at his feet; he let the last beats of his heart push that purest light into his other, to push his waning life into him. It was then he saw, with painful clarity the true extent of what he was.

He was an angel of the kindest, purest light. Now doomed to hell.

Swooping, soaring in the sky.

Flying, falling way up high.

Never slowing, never stop.

Never looking never not

aware of what's beneath you where the lesser beings toil.

Mere migrant creatures fumbling in the soil.

They live and breathe so far below,

While greater beings upwards go.

But spinning, spinning, downwards up

What was beneath you becomes above

But still you remain within the sky

Flying, falling way up high.

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That's it people, I was unsure to put the poem in or not so comments would be appreciated as to improve this fic, (even gramma I know mines terrible)

Review please and thank you for reading

- Phoenix


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